


misunderstandings

by bothsexuals



Category: Community (TV)
Genre: Fluff, M/M, everyone except trobed and annie is dumb, i don't know it's just fun and cute, i included neil because i love him
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-09
Updated: 2020-06-09
Packaged: 2021-03-03 23:08:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,015
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24623722
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bothsexuals/pseuds/bothsexuals
Summary: Troy and Abed start dating, but when Abed announces he's with someone, everyone thinks he's dating Annie.
Relationships: Annie Edison & Abed Nadir, Troy Barnes & Annie Edison & Abed Nadir, Troy Barnes/Abed Nadir
Comments: 30
Kudos: 471





	misunderstandings

**Author's Note:**

> Heteronormativity is a disease, what can I say? I can't believe I had to write Pi*rce for this. I hate that dude. Also, I wish this had a better title but I couldn't think of one so we're sticking with the working title. Please enjoy!

When Troy and Abed had started dating, they hadn’t made a big deal out of it to the rest of the study group. They had told Annie right after they kissed for the first time, both because she was their closest friend aside from each other, and because it would have been impractical to keep anything from the person they shared a living space with. And as much as both Troy and Abed appreciated the awkward finding out of two character’s relationship storylines in sit-coms, they didn’t think Annie would appreciate them deliberately putting her in that situation. So they told her, and she hugged them and told them she was as happy as anyone could be and had always rooted for them to be together- then quickly corrected herself to admit she had rooted for them ever since her childish crush on Troy had died down. 

As far as the others went, they simply walked into the study room holding hands one day, and Abed proudly announced he was dating someone as Troy looked at him with a smitten smile. Annie clapped her hands excitedly and everyone else shared a look and gave their unsure congratulations. They didn’t think they had left a lot of room for doubt. It was quite obvious, Abed had told Troy when he’d wondered aloud whether the others had understood, that if any couple were to form out of the study group and last, it would be the two of them. Troy had agreed and lunged forward to capture Abed’s lips with his own, and they had forgotten about everything else. 

They couldn’t have been more wrong, of course. Clearly, as they would find out only weeks later, they had put too much faith into their friends’ deduction skills. 

The confusion had started right after their ‘announcement’. After the day’s study group session was over, Annie had linked one arm with Troy, one with Abed, and the three of them had walked back to their apartment, chatting amiably. The others had stayed behind, all- even Jeff- speculating on who Abed could be dating. They came to no conclusions- and none of them guessed even close to right- and elected to do a little friendly spying to find out who Abed’s new beau was. (Those were Britta’s words, and they earned a loud groan from Jeff and a refusal to do any of the spying himself.) 

A few days later, Britta called a secret meeting with everyone except Abed- obviously- and Troy and Annie- they hadn’t been there the first time, so clearly they couldn’t be part of the operation. 

“So, here are the facts,” Britta murmured, her voice low as if she thought someone might be listening. 

“Why are you wearing glasses? Please don’t make this a thing,” Jeff groaned, mindlessly typing on his phone. 

“Shut up, Winger,” Britta bit back, “and put your phone down, we know no one’s texting you.” 

Jeff rolled his eyes, but complied, and Britta smiled gratefully. 

“So, here are the facts,” she started again, “I’ve been following the subject-” 

“Who?” Pierce confusedly asked. 

“She means Abed,” Shirley explained, as Britta huffed in frustration. 

“The _subject_ ,” she continued, “hasn’t had any meaningful contact with anyone outside of the study group.” 

“Ooh, what do you think that means?” Shirley asked, interestedly clasping her hands together. 

“It means Britta is an awful detective,” Jeff replied. 

“ _No,_ it means it was an inside job!” Britta slammed her open palm on the table for effect, and winced at how it hurt. 

“Huh?” 

Britta sighed at Pierce’s confusion, and shot Shirley a look to ask her to explain, but found her confused as well. 

“It means he’s dating someone who is _in_ the study group!” she exclaimed, gesturing wildly. 

“That’s ridiculous,” Jeff dead-panned. 

“It does sound a bit improbable, Britta,” Shirley said sweetly, “who would Abed even be dating?”

“Well, is one of you guys dating Abed?” Britta asked, and each one of the others looked a little taken aback as they shook their heads. “Well, me neither, so the answer is obvious.” She saw Shirley look from Pierce to Jeff, baffled, and groaned. “Seriously, guys? It’s Annie! He’s dating Annie!” 

“That’s ridiculous,” Jeff said once again, “Abed is _not_ dating Annie.” He stood up, and swung his bag over his shoulder. “This is stupid. I’m out.” 

Britta turned back towards Shirley once Jeff was out the door, and the older woman shot her an apologetic glance. “I’m sorry, Britta, but I don’t think that’s very likely.” 

Britta turned towards her last resort, Pierce, and he shrugged dispassionately. “I don’t really care, but I also disagree with you.” 

“You will see,” Britta murmured as they walked away too, “you will _all_ see.” 

  


***

  


Some days passed and Britta was still holding on tightly to her conviction that Abed and Annie were an item, just as Jeff, Shirley, and Pierce were still totally unconvinced. She kept looking for clues, ready to throw them in their faces at the first possible occasion. Luckily, it didn’t take long for one to fall into her lap. 

“Hey, Annie,” Abed asked while they took a break during a study session, and Britta perked up with interest, “are you still on for tonight?” 

“Still on, Abed,” she replied with a sweet smile and an even sweeter voice. 

“Awesome,” Abed commented with a grin, then turned towards Troy to do their signature handshake as they both sang a high-pitched “Date night!” 

Well, that was obvious proof, wasn’t it? Granted, it was a little weird that Troy was so invested in their relationship, but hey, who was she to judge a man’s closeness to his best friends? 

_See?_ she mouthed at Jeff, with a pointed tilt of her head. 

_See what?_ he mouthed back, uninterested, before focusing back on his phone. 

Britta sighed, and failed to see Troy’s hand gently resting on Abed’s thigh under the table as he leaned over to talk to him. 

  


***

  


A few days later, Shirley was a little bit early for class, so she peppily walked to the cafeteria to get herself a coffee. She waved at Troy when she noticed him sitting at a table and walked over to him, and her eyes widened as she noticed Abed was sitting across from him, with Annie on his lap. 

“What’s going on here?” she asked through gritted teeth. 

“We’re revising and having breakfast,” Troy gingerly replied, “what’s up with you?”

“No, I mean-” she gestured towards Abed and Annie, who were still gazing down at the textbook in front of them, “what’s all this?”

“Oh,” Abed’s head perked up, and Annie’s swiftly followed, “there were no other free chairs, so I offered to be Annie’s chair.” 

“Well, there seems to be plenty of free chairs now,” Shirley pointed out.

“I didn’t feel like moving,” Annie shrugged, “we’re almost done anyways.” Abed nodded to signal that he was okay with it and Annie smiled. “Plus, Abed is a super comfy chair.” 

Shirley didn’t notice the wink Annie shot Troy, nor the way he flushed. 

“It hardly seems appropriate,” she said instead, an obviously judgemental inflection in her voice. 

“It’s really nothing,” Troy interjected coolly, “they do it all the time.” 

“In front of you?” Shirley asked, a hand coming over her heart in shock. 

“Yeah?” Troy replied with a confused frown, “why should-” 

Shirley didn’t hear the rest of the question, busy as she was walking away to find Britta before classes started. She ran into her in the hallway, and ignored her smile and greeting to grab her arm with an alarmed look on her face. 

“You were right, Britta. Abed and Annie are together. And they’re indecent sinners.” She punctuated her statement with a quick sign of the cross. 

Britta’s brows narrowed. “Okay, I don’t know about _that_ , but they are definitely dating.”

Shirley nodded gravely. “Our sweet little Abed is a deviant,” she said with furrowed brows. 

“What about Annie?” Britta amusedly asked. 

“We already knew she was a lost cause,” Shirley replied, shaking her head dejectedly. 

“Damn,” Britta laughed, linking arms with a still baffled Shirley. 

  


***

  


A few hours later, Britta and Shirley had successfully cornered Annie in one of the hallways, and she was looking at them with slightly scared eyes. 

“Do you know who Abed is dating?” Britta asked with a suggestive raise of her eyebrows. 

“You guys are joking, right?” she confusedly said.

“Just answer, Annie,” Shirley muttered in her infamous scary voice. 

“Fine, fine-” Annie raised her hands in defeat and sighed “-of course I know who Abed is dating, I thought we all did.” 

“Who is it?” Britta hissed.

“Well, they live together,” Annie said with a laugh and a raise of her eyebrows. “Oh, thank god,” she sighed as she saw Troy and Abed walk towards them hand-in-hand. 

“Hey, Annie,” Abed greeted her, stopping beside the group of women. 

“Hey, Abed,” she said, slipping away from Britta and Shirley who were for some reason gaping at her. “Nice jacket,” she added with a wink, pointing to Troy’s old letterman jacket that Abed was sporting that day, “right Troy?” 

Troy’s only answer was a strangled noise as he pressed his lips together, clearly having a lot of feelings about his boyfriend wearing his jacket, Troy’s last name written in huge letters on the back, like a wonderful statement to the whole world that they were together. At least, that’s what Annie thought was going on in his head, and she could read Troy pretty well when it came to Abed. 

“We’re getting ice-cream,” Abed cut in, “you wanna come with?” 

Annie gleefully nodded, and Abed looked questioningly at the other women, but they simply continued to stare with weird looks in their eyes, so he looked back at Annie, who shrugged and began to walk away. 

“I don’t think they know you’re dating,” she told them once they were outside the school. 

“Really?” Troy replied with an incredulous laugh, “I think we’re being pretty obvious.”

“I agree,” Abed nodded, “Neil congratulated us on our second day of dating and we hadn’t even told him.”

“Well, clearly our other friends are a lot dumber than Neil,” Annie concluded.

  


***

  


A week had passed, and Britta was growing more and more convinced each day that Abed and Annie were in fact an item- she told Jeff as much almost everyday, bringing all kinds of inconclusive arguments, such as Annie greeting Abed with a kiss on the cheek, or the fact that she had heard Troy and Abed talk about another date night and when she had casually asked Annie whether she had plans that evening, she had said she was busy. 

“Get a job, Britta,” was Jeff’s usual answer, and it was again that day when she started telling him for the thousandth time that Annie had basically confirmed it. 

“She confirmed it like a week ago, dude, just accept it and move on!” Britta retorted, relentlessly following him as he deliberately tried to get away from her. 

He stopped in his tracks, turned towards her in a way that made Britta start like a deer in headlights, and quirked an eyebrow. “Britta, the idea of Annie and Abed as a couple makes no sense, and if you had an ounce of rationality in that conspiracy theory obsessed stoner brain of yours, you would understand that.” 

And with that, he walked away, feeling all too pleased with his little speech. 

He forgot all about the great Abed and Annie conspiracy until biology class a few hours later, when he overheard a snippet of a conversation between the two of them as he sat down near them.

“That’s adorable, Abed,” she was- and Jeff wished to everything that wasn’t holy he had another way to describe this- gushing. 

“I’m just trying to be a good boyfriend,” he replied a little bashfully, “it’s nothing.” 

“Well,” Annie replied, gently placing her hand on Abed’s arm and smiling sweetly, “I think you’re the _best_ boyfriend.” 

Jeff’s eyes widened as he saw Abed return her smile, and he clumsily stood up to find Britta. 

Of course, what he missed as he made his hasty exit was Abed saying that well, Troy was really the best boyfriend, and Annie gushing even more about how adorable that was. And of course, what he had missed before that was a very important piece of context, namely the fact that Annie and Abed were discussing his surprise for Troy- a perfect recreation of his favorite rom-com that afternoon in the dreamatorium -and that he had been asking Annie for some help putting together the last few details. 

Of course, Jeff was one hundred percent convinced he had understood everything perfectly, and of course, if Jeff Winger had been half as all-knowing as he liked to think, the world might have been a very different place. 

Nevertheless, Jeff intercepted Britta as she made her way to class with Shirley, and vigorously grabbed her by the shoulders. 

“You were right,” he exclaimed, “those two are definitely dating.” 

“Told ya, dude,” Britta calmly replied, shaking Jeff’s hands off of her and punching his shoulder. 

“Ow,” he pointedly said. 

“That’s for not believing me,” she shrugged. 

Shirley hummed in agreement and they both made their way to class, a still shell-shocked Jeff following close behind. 

  


***

  


Britta, Shirley and Jeff cornered Pierce a few hours later, determined to convince the last of them. 

“Jeff agrees,” Britta told him, “Annie and Abed are definitely dating.” 

“Okay, I’m in,” Pierce declared. 

“What, just like that?” Jeff scoffed. 

“I don’t really care,” Pierce replied, “I just want to be a part of this.” 

  


***

  


“So, Troy,” Britta spoke one day during lunch, all of them there except for Annie and Abed, who had told Troy they had a thing to do and to meet them in the garden after lunch, “is it weird living with Annie and Abed now?”

Troy furrowed his brows in confusion. “Huh? Why would it be weird?”

“Well, you know,” Shirley decided to cut in, “because of the… situation.” 

“Oh you mean- oh no, of course it’s not weird,” Troy replied with a laugh, “Annie’s the best.” 

“She sure is, pal,” Britta nodded, patting his arm in what she thought was a friendly, supportive way, and what Troy thought was a very awkward, disconcerting way. 

“Okay, I gotta go.” He stood up, suddenly needing to be anywhere but there, with his friends looking at him with those weird, unreadable looks, and also needing to know what the hell Annie and Abed were up to.

He took long strides toward the garden, and looked around for his friends once there, until he saw Annie jogging towards him, holding something red in her hands. 

“Put this on,” she said, handing whatever it was to Troy once she reached him. 

He turned it around in his hands and his eyes widened. “Is this a Spider-Man suit?” 

Annie nodded, trying and failing to hold back an excited smile. “Put it on! Quick!” 

Troy ran to the nearest bathroom, followed closely by Annie, and handed her his discarded clothes once he had changed, then followed her to what could almost be described as a secluded spot of the Greendale Community College gardens. 

“Hey, Spidey,” Abed greeted him, holding the final piece of his costume- his mask. 

“Hey babe,” Troy replied, looking at him with a dazed expression, “what-” 

“Spidey kiss,” Abed explained. He pointed to the tree behind him, and to Neil who was standing beside it. “You’ll put this on-” he handed Troy the mask “-Neil’s gonna help you climb on that tree branch there, then you’ll hang like Spidey and kiss your Mary Jane.” He paused for a second then added, “It’s me. I’m your Mary Jane.” 

“I know you’re my Mary Jane, Abed,” Troy laughed, flinging his arms around Abed’s neck and kissing him. “I love you,” he whispered afterwards.

“I love you too,” Abed whispered back, “now do that upside down. Annie will film it.” 

Troy laughed and let go of Abed, then pulled on the mask and climbed the tree to kiss his boyfriend in the most awesome way possible, all the while wondering how the hell he had gotten that lucky. 

  


***

  


The following week, Troy and Abed were sitting next to each other at a table in the cafeteria waiting for Annie to come back with their coffees. Abed was idly playing with Troy’s fingers in his hands, smittenly gazing at the man of his dreams as he talked about how awesome the new Miles Morales comics were, when Britta suddenly sat down in front of him. 

“Hey, Britta,” he greeted her, more than a little upset by the fact that her arrival had caused Troy to stop talking. But at least his hand was still in Abed’s, which was pretty awesome. 

“Hey, Abed,” she replied, a puzzling look on her face that Abed really couldn’t read despite his best efforts, “how are things going with Annie?” 

“Huh?” was all Abed could say, turning towards Troy with a confused look in his eyes. 

Troy gave him an equally confused shrug, and Abed turned back towards Britta, whose expression was now even more unreadable. 

“Dude-” she started to say, but Abed didn’t hear the rest of her sentence- if she even finished it- because suddenly Annie was there, handing them their coffees. 

“Here you go, pumpkin eyes,” she told him, quoting the _Runaways_ comics he had made her read a couple of weeks before.

“Thank you, muffin lips,” he replied, earning a chuckle from Troy as their running gag usually did. 

Britta’s eyes darted between them, and Abed gave up on trying to understand what was going on in her head as Annie sat beside her, apologizing for not having gotten her a coffee, and instead let his focus completely drift back to Troy’s words and the feeling of his hand in Abed’s.

  


***

  


Troy’s breath faltered as he walked into the study room to meet Abed, and found him looking unexpectedly gorgeous in one of Troy’s shirts _and_ his letterman jacket. 

“What the hell are you doing, man?” he breathlessly asked, walking towards Abed, who stood up from his chair to greet him, “You know half the clothes you’re wearing are mine?” 

Abed smiled innocently, caressing Troy’s arms with his hands as Troy’s own hands made their way to his waist. “I know.” 

“And you know that makes me want to cry and also kiss you for a hundred hours?” Troy asked. 

“And maybe more,” Abed added, with a suggestive raise of his eyebrows. 

“So you’ve decided to drive me insane for the whole day?” 

“Pretty much.” 

Troy breathed in sharply, really wishing they were at home and not in a study room where anyone could walk in at any moment. 

“I’m gonna kiss you now,” he mumbled. 

“Please do,” Abed said, the words swallowed by Troy’s lips before they were even fully out. 

Abed wound his arms around Troy’s neck as he let out a sigh of pleasure that made Troy’s entire body react, pushing Abed backwards until he was sitting on the study table, Troy’s arms framing him at both sides as he continued to kiss him with all the love and passion he felt burning inside him.

They very reluctantly pulled apart a few minutes later, hearing a loud gasp come from the doorway, but thankfully for Troy, Abed didn’t let go of him, but simply turned towards the sound, still tangled with him. He followed his gaze to see the rest of the study group standing in the doorway, each of them wearing a bewildered look on their faces except for Annie. 

“What the _hell_ is going on here?” Britta furiously asked. 

“I’m kissing Abed,” Troy replied without thinking, “can y’all come back later?”

He heard Annie hum in agreement, and saw her turn to leave, but stop when nobody else made a move to do the same. 

“This is so wrong,” Shirley mumbled, repeatedly doing the sign of the cross as she dazedly made her way to the couch and sat down, “oh, Lord forgive them.” 

“What?” Troy asked, turning back towards Abed, who shrugged and gazed down at Troy’s lips with a look of disappointment that Troy felt with every fiber of his being. He unraveled his arms from around Troy’s neck and let them fall at his sides, and Troy immediately felt their absence, and remedied by resting his palm on Abed’s knee. 

“Why are _you_ kissing _Abed_?” Jeff asked, walking closer to them, followed by everyone else except for Shirley, who looked like she was praying. 

“Because I wanted to? What the hell are you guys on?” 

“And why are _you_ -” Pierce frantically gestured at Abed “-kissing Troy?” 

“Because I also wanted to,” Abed simply replied. 

“You are disgusting,” Britta spat out, and Troy gasped, outraged, while Abed simply narrowed his brows, taken aback. 

“Huh?” he said, at the same time that Troy growled, “Watch it.” 

“What about Annie?” Britta exclaimed, frantically waving towards her. 

“What about her?” Abed asked. 

“Yeah, what about me?” Annie echoed, visibly growing more confused by the second.

“Aren’t you angry that your boyfriend is kissing somebody else?” Britta sounded desperate at that point, and Troy just wished he could go back to a few minutes earlier, when he was kissing his boyfriend and everything was good and easy to understand. 

“What boyfriend? I don’t have a boyfriend.” 

“Yes you do,” Shirley finally spoke up, “and he’s cheating on you. With a man. Oh Lord help me Jesus.” 

“Who is cheating on who?” Troy loudly asked, now growing really frustrated. 

“Abed is cheating on Annie!” Britta exclaimed, “With you!” 

“What?” Troy asked, turning towards Abed again. 

“What?” Abed asked with wide eyes. 

“What?” Annie asked, “Are you guys crazy? I’m not dating Abed.” 

“You aren’t?” Jeff asked. 

“Absolutely not,” Annie replied a little too quickly, “no offense Abed.” 

“None taken,” he shrugged. 

“But what about the pet names,” Britta mumbled dejectedly, “and the date nights?”

“The pet names are an inside joke,” Abed easily explained, “they’re from a comic book-” Annie shrugged when Jeff glanced at her, clearly judging the fact that she read comic books now “-and Annie and I don’t have date nights, who told you that?”

“She’s always busy when you say you have a date night!” Britta exclaimed. 

“Yeah, Troy and Abed like to have home dates so they schedule them when I’m out,” Annie said with a shrug. 

“Troy and Abed?” Britta confusedly repeated, looking at Annie, then at them. 

“Keep going,” Annie said, “you’re almost there.”

Jeff groaned, dropping himself on the couch next to Shirley and vaguely gesturing towards Troy and Abed. “Troy and Abed are dating, Britta, not Abed and Annie.” 

“Yeah, _obviously_ ,” Troy said, grabbing Abed’s hand a little jealously, “how the hell did you not know that?”

“Heteronormativity,” Abed explained, gently kicking Troy’s leg with his to make him look at him. 

“Well, you didn’t make it very clear,” he heard Britta say defensively, but paid no attention as he heard Annie tell her that to be fair, everyone else but them had understood perfectly. 

Instead, he focused on Abed, who was smiling sweetly at him as he raised a hand to Troy’s hair and twirled a short strand around in his fingers. 

“I guess we got the awkwardly finding out trope after all,” he said.

“I guess so,” Troy agreed with a chuckle, and leaned in to kiss Abed, not caring about the fact that all of their friends were probably staring at them at that point. 

“Alright,” he thought he heard Annie say, but he couldn’t be sure, focused as he was on Abed’s mouth moving against his, “everybody out. You’re leaving them alone to apologize for being idiots.” 

He realized it had actually happened when Abed pulled back and he followed his gaze to see everyone except Annie had left. 

“Thanks, muffin lips,” Abed said, absent-mindedly stroking the nape of Troy’s neck. 

“No problem, pumpkin eyes,” she replied, and flashed them a fond smile before leaving.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! I hope you enjoyed this, if you did please leave a comment and/or kudos!


End file.
